Lessons of history may apply to Syria

Published: Wednesday, May 1, 2013 at 08:18 PM.

To the editor:

Here we go again: Recently, our president has stated that Syria using chemical weapons crosses a red line that could force us to take action.

Apparently, there exists evidence that Assad’s regime has used such weapons. Why use a gas that terrorists have used before in Japan’s tunnels and in such a small quantity on a few people? We are looking for more proof, but hawks want action — and they want it now.

We have been down this road before with Iraq about such “weapons of mass destruction” and, if we have learned anything from recent history, we could get bogged down with an expensive undertaking that may last for many years.

At the very least, let us get the rest of the world behind us first. The Muslim extremists’ number one goal is to get us into another fiasco — as if this sequester due to lack of fiscal co-operation wasn’t enough.

Assad would do himself a big favor if he turned over such weapons to a country like Russia to dispose of them because if terrorists get their hands on even the smallest amount, they will use it and then put blame Assad.

With the war hawks screaming in our ears about plunging into this conflict, we would serve ourselves well to plan ahead for what comes after Assad and remember the lessons from Iraq.

Here we go again: Recently, our president has stated that Syria using chemical weapons crosses a red line that could force us to take action.

Apparently, there exists evidence that Assad’s regime has used such weapons. Why use a gas that terrorists have used before in Japan’s tunnels and in such a small quantity on a few people? We are looking for more proof, but hawks want action — and they want it now.

We have been down this road before with Iraq about such “weapons of mass destruction” and, if we have learned anything from recent history, we could get bogged down with an expensive undertaking that may last for many years.

At the very least, let us get the rest of the world behind us first. The Muslim extremists’ number one goal is to get us into another fiasco — as if this sequester due to lack of fiscal co-operation wasn’t enough.

Assad would do himself a big favor if he turned over such weapons to a country like Russia to dispose of them because if terrorists get their hands on even the smallest amount, they will use it and then put blame Assad.

With the war hawks screaming in our ears about plunging into this conflict, we would serve ourselves well to plan ahead for what comes after Assad and remember the lessons from Iraq.